A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PUNISHMENT SQUAD
by MiddleAgedMutantNinjaTurtle
Summary: The Punisher has a brand new bag, and allies. He wants to make life hard for AIM Advanced Ideas and Machines , and while he's just getting started, he's doing a good job...


A DAY IN THE LIFE, continued

A PUNISHMENT SQUAD

"You sure this is where they are?" Luke "Power Man" Cage asked.

"Yes, for the fifth time," Ororo said.

"Okay," the big ex-con shrugged, "just sayin' I'm surprised AIM is in Frisco."

"I'm not," Misty "Black Lightning" Knight said, staring at the video monitors in the back of the van, "they don't want anyone to know where they are, this is as good as it gets."

The usual San Francisco summer fog blotted the sun from the sky at 4p.m. Twin Peaks couldn't be seen at all. One of the monitors showed fog drifting into the middle of a San Francisco Giants baseball game in AT&T Park, a double feature, the second game. Cage tweaked the volume control just as Melky "Melk Man" Cabrera, a Giant, hit a home run. "Adios pelota!" the announcer shouted, "the Melk Man has a splash hit!"

Misty turned the game off. "Let's do it."

Cage opened the sliding side door and crossed 16th Street where it ran into 3rd Street, Misty Knight on his right shoulder. The building they approached was a brick, glass and steel cube with the words GENE THERAPIES R US! etched into the steel on each side. Cage leaned on a metal roll-up delivery door. The metal complained.

"Okay," he said, "I got this. Please don't fry me!"

"You'll never stop bitchin' about it, will you?"

Cage, back across the street, laughed and started running. As he smashed the metal door into several large, flying pieces of shrapnel, Knight generated a swarm of balls of electricity orbiting her head. Several of them flew inside the building.

KRAKA-BOOOOOM…BOOM…BOOM!

"Wha-hooooooo!" Cage shouted. Knight listened to crashing noises and the answering shouts of startled, scared men.

Krak-krak-krak…brrrrrrrappppppp…

"Not unless you got adamantium bullets sugah," Knight muttered, stepped to the side as a man bolted out of the darkness for the wide-open entryway. She tripped him, sparks playing in his hair. He hit concrete and didn't get up again.

FLASH! ZZZZZZAPPPP!

Cage flew past her and hit the building across the street. Knight watched the Advanced Ideas and Machines creation/monster, sitting in a very sturdy hover chair, approach. A grim smile smirked its massive mouth.

"MODOK, my man!" Black Lightning exclaimed, "so nice to meet you in the city by the Bay! Sugah, you need to learn better hospitality."

"You do not have an appointment—"

They blasted at each other simultaneously.

"—but I will kill you anyway, the bio-engineered cyborg killer snarled in a bone-vibrating deep voice, "for trespassing!"

"They don't lay the death penalty on folks for that in California" Knight growled back, "but I'll lay it on you just f'breathin'!"

Intense energy blasts zipped and zapped back and forth, doing more damage to the building than them.

"Misty!" Ororo stood behind her, "leave now. Drive Luke to the meet-up place."

If she said anything else Misty Knight didn't hear it. The air inside the building shoved her outside. She could hear sirens getting close. She jumped in the van, thankful it was armored with adamantium. Cage was in the front passenger seat inhaling a soft drink.

Knight tore up 16th Street. In the rear view mirror she saw a tornado erupt into existence, surrounding the GENE THERAPIES R US! building. It tore the building out of the ground. The vortex of rapidly spinning air arced high over China Basin and vanished. "Splash hit," she and Cage muttered.

"I don't know who else was there, " Cage said, "but I almost kicked the Wizard's ass. Teleported away when that big mofo in the chair—"

"MODOK, Machine Organism Designed Only for Killing," Knight said.

"—yeah, that!" Cage sighed, "I hate being hit like a baseball…"

"You were a home run all the way baby!"

"Uhhhh…"

They met Ororo at Fillmore and Pacific in the Pacific Heights neighborhood and had a snack and coffee in the Tully's on one corner. "AIM will feel some pressure now," she said, "some of their infrastructure gone, MODOK destroyed…"

"We still don't know who their money man is," Knight said, "they just spend and make more bolt holes."

"Word…" Cage muttered.


End file.
